Riding for a reason

By Denise Dick | June 4, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

4K for Cancer makes pit stop in Valley on cross-country trek

By DENISE DICK

BOARDMAN

Twenty-eight college students bike 4,000 miles over 63 days to raise funds, foster hope and spread awareness about cancer.

The cyclists in the 4K for Cancer, mostly students at Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, started their journey Sunday from Baltimore.

They stopped Thursday afternoon at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Boardman to eat snacks and dinner provided by church members and to spend the night.

They’ll wrap up their trek July 31 at San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.

Jose Medina, 21, of Miami, and Kristine Casey, 22, of Bernardsville, N.J., serve as co-directors for this year’s event. This marks Medina’s first 4K and Casey’s second.

“My mom is a Hodgkin’s lymphoma survivor,” Casey said of her involvement.

Two of Medina’s close friends made the trip in 2008 and last year. Medina’s grandmother died of a brain tumor, and a close relative died from breast cancer, he said.

Frank Riddle, a church member, said the church opened its doors to feed and house the cyclists four years ago and has continued it since.

“We enjoy having them here,” he said. “All of our people in the church prepare different kinds of food.”

Wake-up time for cyclists is between 4:30 and 6 a.m., followed by packing up, breakfast and a gathering where cyclists announce whom they are dedicating that day’s ride to.

“My adviser, Claire King, lost her son to leukemia when he was very young,” Medina said. “I dedicated today’s ride to her son.”

Cyclists begin each day’s ride with groups of between three and six members hitting the road in roughly five-minute intervals, he said.

Each day’s ride stretches between 80 miles and 120 miles and lasts between five and six hours. From the Boardman church, the group was to leave today, headed to Cleveland.

They spend each night at a church, school or YMCA-like facility.

This year, Medina and Casey instituted a training regimen, trying to prepare for the arduous ride.

“The first week is the hardest,” Casey said.

Riders get a little sore. Some even talk of how their clothes fit looser, Medina said.